‘This thing could go right now’: Newport leaders search for solutions to aging and vulnerable dams

Two 50-year-old earthen dams are at high risk of failure — threatening homes, Highway 101 and the economic prospects of the largest tourism hub on the central coast.

NEWPORT, Ore. — On a recent warm spring day, bald eagles circled above the Big Creek Reservoir, northeast of Newport, as several anglers cast lazy lines into the deep green waters.

The tranquil scene belied a hidden danger, though. 

Just a few steps away, the dam that created the reservoir, and another one downstream, could suffer catastrophic failure in a moderate earthquake, or even spontaneously, due to their age and poor construction. 

“They’re earthen dams,

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